Hello Fellow Foodies! You may recognize me as the winner from abc's Season 3 of the Great American Baking Show! I'm a full-time foodie, traveler, attorney, and lover of life! I'm thrilled to share snippets of my life with you through this blog--from my favorite holiday recipes to exciting voyages abroad. READ MORE

I love pies, cakes, and cookies at Christmastime. But, I also like trying new things, and I wanted to bring a little bit of France with me home to Lousiana for the holidays. The buche de noel (Yule Log) is a traditional Christmas dessert in France, Belgium, French Canada, Lebanon, and Vietnam. It is traditionally made from a sponge cake , and filled with chocolate buttecream rolled up to ressemble a log.

I wanted to make one a little more--interesting. I found a recipe that combined Nutella, whipped cream, and toasted almonds. I couldn't resist!

The toasted almonds really bring out the nuttiness of the Nutella, and compliment the Genoise cake splendidly. The finished product is so festive and really adds a nice flair to any dining table set for Christmas dinner. You can always enjoy a left over piece the next morning with coffee for holiday-only guilt-free breakfast ;)

This Yule Log recipe is particularly wintry since the whipped cream frosting symbolizes snow on the log. Get creative and really create a winter wonderland! Enjoy!

Immediately after removing cake from oven, run a knife around edge of pan. Dust top of cake with powdered sugar. Invert cake onto clean parchment paper and gently peel off the lining paper that is now the top of the cake. Starting from short side of cake, gently roll cake, along with clean paper, into a log. Let cool, seam side down, 30 minutes.

Once cake has cooled, prepare filling and frosting. Gently unroll cake and spread with filling, leaving a ½ inch border. Starting from a short side, carefully re-roll (do not roll paper in cake), and place, seam side down, on a baking sheet or serving platter. Spread log with frosting; sprinkle with almonds. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.

Heat gelatin mixture very gently over low heat, stirring just until dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat remaining 2 cups heavy cream with sugar until soft peaks form. While still beating, pour dissolved gelatin mixture over cream all at once (gently reheat gelatin mixture if it has stiffened).

Fold half of whipped cream into Nutella mixture to finish the Chocolate-Hazlenut filling. The remaining whipped cream is the whipped cream frosting.